representation of social classs in parasite movie

Lire Journal (Journal of Linguistics and Literature)

https://lirejoournal.ubb.ac.id/index.php/LRJ/index

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Volume 5 Number 1 2021

69

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internasional.

Copyright © 2021, Lambok Hermanto Sihombing & Agustinus Alexander Sinaga

REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL CLASSS IN PARASITE MOVIE

Lambok Hermanto Sihombing1 & Agustinus Alexander Sinaga2

1Communication Department, Universitas President Indonesia

2English Department, Universitas Kristen Maranatha Indonesia

Corresponding Author: Lambok Hermanto Sihombing E-mail: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Received: 2021-01-29 Accepted: 2021-03-21 Published: 2021-03-22

Volume: 5 Issue: 1 DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33019/lire.v3i2.107

Film works can be created from various perspectives and production methods by teams in the film industry. Parasite is a South Korean movie present as a production-based film and it raises a big theme of lifestyle differences between

social classes. Parasite Movie portrays a new perspective with an astonishing story and plot-twist in the context of film with the issue of social inequality in the modern era. Various awards were obtained by Parasite films on a national and

international scale for its beautiful story. The data is collected from the scenes in the movie which later the data is connected with some theories. This study also

aims to find out the literary meaning of the movie Parasite, specifically the representation of social class through some literary research.

KEYWORDS

Film, Korean Movie, Parasite

Movie, Representation, Social Class.

1. INTRODUCTION

Film industry has improved since decades ago, from black and white, to full of CGI. Film has

become a place to escape from reality for a lot of people around the world. Not many people

realize that there are more purposes in making a film. Since long time ago, film is made for

several purposes such as for entertainment, documentary, education, or simply to tell a story

about something, whether it is true events or fiction. However, film can also be used as a media

for film often takes an approach that can be associated with social theory and other sciences in

discussion or even criticism of the film. As is said by Pouty, a writer and editor in chief in

OurMovieLife article, Film is often used as propaganda and encouragement to increase

awareness and other interests, for example Hitler used film as propaganda in World War II.

Many people from in Germany hated the Jews because of this propaganda. Pouty also adds that

Gladiator movie, even though it is a fictional movie, it represents how the political situation

back then in the past during Romanian era (Boy, 2017).

Film can change the opinions and views of its audience on the topics discussed in the

film, as the main purpose of the cinematic art form to make an impact and send a message. This

influence can be positive and negative, depends on the response of the individual audience, so

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that many discussion rooms are built in many platforms and social media like YouTube,

Facebook, Twitter and many more. The film makes people to be more aware on some aspects

of life such as the importance of the quality of formal education systems and curricular school

activities, criminal activities, war and terrorism, reflecting culture and change, a history that

contains facts and realistic or fantastic images of how the world was before technological

advances this time. Rilind Elezaj, an experienced Digital Marketing Specialist who is also a

writer stated that film connects past generations to the present, perpetuating culture and even

changing values. He adds that the film reflects the perception of how we live side by side as

human beings, and how it is easy to see what concerns us, our attitudes, and also strengths and

weaknesses in the film rather than describing them from our daily interactions (Elezaj, 2019).

The extent of creativity and topics in the film industry and the influence on the audience,

Korea also has a modern creative industry and huge influence in film. Starting the first film in

1919 called Fight for Justice, film industry in Korea has peaked until late 1990s. Since then,

film industry in Korea has grown and become more popular among people. The number of

viewers in South Korea in 2018 has reached more than 200 million with over than 50% market

share in only around eight years, 483 national theaters and 2,937 screens with 80 percent theater

are multiplex theater, and sales volume reaches more than one trillion won. According to So,

Republic of Korean films from large domestic and distribution companies, such as Lotte Culture

Wick, CJ ENM, Showbox, and NEW are produced annually and have an important role in

developing the film industry in Korea, including how the films are introduced to the cinemas

(So, 2020).

Parasite film is a breakthrough in the Korean film industry today because of its success

on an international scale since its premier on May 21, 2019 at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival

and got marketed in South Korea on May 30, 2019 by CJ Entertainment. Parasite / 기생충

(Gisaengchung) is a South Korean film directed, produced, and written by Bong Joon Ho.

Parasite is about modern-day capitalists and criticism of "Hell Joseon" in the Korean sphere,

bringing the story of the urban landscape as a metaphor for the deepening social divide between

rich and poor people with unique images and perspectives on social inequality and class




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struggle. Hell Joseon is a slogan to satirize a hard life of Korean nowadays. Based on the

explanation above, the authors will explain and describe types of social class represented in the

movie Parasite. Parasite becomes a Korean film that has positive responses from both Korea

and internationally. In the US alone, this film scooped up around $35 million. In its debut in

some cinemas in the US, Parasite received $376,264 and was still counting after Bong and the

gang brought home four Oscars statues. The total profit that the film production received around

the world is up around $165 million. It is far bigger than the original budget which only cost

them around $13 million (Clark, 2020). Parasite collects the total of 33 awards from many

awards and categories. Oscar became the most special award for Bong and Korea because

Parasite is the first movie from South Korea to win the Academy Awards a.k.a Oscar. This

Kimchi country brought home the Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best International

Feature Film. Bong is also nominated as the Best Director. With that, Parasite won four

categories (IMDb, 2019). What is special from this movie is that Parasite in not only

entertaining, but this movie also gives a description about social class in South Korea. The film

offends the social gap between the rich and the poor through representation of the characters.

This movie is best analyzed because the director himself gives some comments about how social

class in South Korea looks like.

2. LITERARY REVIEW In understanding more about social class in Parasite movie, it is essential to know the meaning

of social class. Social class is one’s material possession and one’s social status or rank in a

society (Oakes & Rossi, 2003). According to Michael W. Kraus, Jun Wo Park and Jacinth J.X.

Tan in their journal entitled Sign of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in

Everyday Life, they quoted from Michael Hout that there are four categories of social classes

which are; lower class, working class, middle class and upper class (Kraus, 2017). In short,

someone is considered an upper class in if he or she has position and such as money or any other

material possession in a society. On the other hand, someone will be acknowledged as lower

class or poor if he or she only has little possession or no position at all in a society. This article

will also use a theory of representation. It is used to make the analysis easier and to determine

what social classes that are used in this film and what they represent. According to Tyas




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Pramono Aji in his Journal about representation, he quoted from Stuart Hall that representation

is a process through language to produce meaning between people or culture and media. To

make it clearer he also uses the reflective approach because the meaning can be determined by

ideology and experience of people reflected by culture or reality in a society (Aji, 2016). In

other words, how people are reflected in the society shows or represents their social status.

The representation of theory means how meaning is produced through language. In

representation, Hall also adds that signs can be used to interpret language and meaning. They

can convey the meaning of something in a distinctive but also beautiful way. Signs are usually

used to symbolize events, objects, and even people. Sign also can be object and events

themselves. They can also be used to represent something that is not real or something that is

considered imaginary or fantasy that has abstract ideas and which does not really exist in the

world. Signs also simplify language so that the target meaning can be delivered narrower. When

the signs and symbols are discovered about what it represents, meaning is easily to determine,

whether it is thoughts, ideas, or feelings (Hall, 1997).

In the exchange there is the use of language, signs, and images that can represent

meaning or purpose of something. In the Oxford English Dictionary representation means the

act of presenting someone or something in a particular way (Oxford Dictionary). For instance

the symbol cross in Christianity represents the crucifixion and sacrifice of Christ. The cross

actually consists of only two wooden boards nailed together in its visuals . However, in the

context of Christian beliefs and teachings, the cross symbolizes the broader meaning of the

crucifixion of the child of God. Thus, this concept can also be applied to some symbols that

may exist in a movie.

This is where the method of representation is present, through the production of meaning

and concepts in the mind but conveyed through language so that it connects real objects in

events or phenomena with f ictional objects in stories. Representation system is all kind of

objects, people, phenomena, events, symbols, and stories that correlate with a set of concepts

and human interpretations that exist in the mind, so that they can be interpreted as events that

occur in the world and in social relationships or social relations. How meaning is formed

depends on the system of concepts and images created in our minds that can represent or depict




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the world. This allows us to create things both inside and outside of our heads. Apart from real

objects, imaginary objects can only be interpreted in the form of feelings captured by the

audience, such as the concept of love, life after death, past history such as the suffering of war,

fairy tales of mermaids, and others.

In the representation of theory, Hall introduces the process of observing that must be

done by humans in seeing, listening, and action because humans always carry out the process

of thinking to interpret and infer all information. Through information obtained by humans will

create their own concepts and understanding of phenomena and principles that have gone

through the process of thinking. Concepts can be described through objects that represent the

mental and human mind such as writing, books, paintings, films, real objects, imaginary objects,

and other objects. Meaning can exist on the relationship between things in the world with

humans, events and things, between what is real and fictional, and conceptual systems that are

able to operate as their mental representations. This is like a cycle that will keep repeating

between the creator of the concept and the recipient of the object and because the human thought

process is different then there will be an update of each concept from the results of meaningful

innovation in receiving information. This representation theory will be used in describing the

meanings and meanings of the behaviors and scenes highlighted in the film Parasite, and will

be useful in explaining the implied meaning of symbols and circumstances in the film.

3. METHODOLOGY

This study uses qualitative data. To help the writers with the analysis, the writers will use the

representation theories from Hall and some other journals that quoted Hall’s statement. Firstly,

the data is collected from the movie itself such as: scenes that show how the characters act,

dress, and react to things; and intrinsic elements like setting and plot. Some data is also taken

from some other sources such as online article and journals. After that, the writers determine

the main or major characters to be analyzed. The writers also pay attention to plot and every

detail presented in the movie. The writers look for some important details that can help in order

to determine the purpose of this article and then write them down. Most of the data in this

analysis is taken from the scenes in the movie which later to be connected with the theories.




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Other data is taken from the article, journal and online media. Finally, the writers determine

some scenes that are correlated with the representation of social class.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Parasite is a South Korean movie with a setting in a modern 21 st Century. The film is about two

different families with different background and social status. Park family lives happily with

His wife, Choi Yeon-gyo and their two kids; a beautiful teenager Da-hye and a little boy Da-

song. They also have a housemaid or housekeeper named Gook Moon-gwang and a driver called

Park Keun-rok. They are a very rich family with a beautiful big house and luxury cars. In some

scenes, the Park’s family members often use decent and branded clothes. They look clean and

elegant, especially Mrs. Park always look stunning with her make up on. From this explanation,

the writers can state that they are from upper class. This can be stated because of their possession

and comfortable life represents a good quality of life: thus, the writers include this family in

upper class. This statement is also reinforced by Hall’s theoriy that says culture or reality of

someone determines one’s social status. This also applies with the next family, Kim’s family’s

social status.

The next family is Kim family. Kim lives with his wife, Choong-sook and two children

Ki-woo or Kevin and Ki-jung or Jessica. They live in a suburban and dirty neighborhood. The

house is very small for four family members. Sometimes, they have to evacuate because of

flood. They do not have a car or any expensive and luxury possession. Therefore from Kim’s

family description, the writers can say that they are poor family. They do not have luxury and

expensive possession like Park family. The neighborhoods which often experience flood also

indicate that they do not live in a proper and comfortable area. Therefore, the writers consider

Kim family as a low or working class social class.




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The figures above shows the difference between Park’s family’s house and Kim’s family’s House.

The next example that shows the social gap between two families is about job. Mr. Park

is a business man. Considering the big house with luxury cars, this family must have a huge

income. They even hire people to do household and to drive the family members where ever

they want to go. Park’s family later in the movie also hires Ki-woo which later he changes his

name to Kevin to be Da-hye’s private teacher. Ki-woo fakes his identity that he used to teach

English for a lot of students. Later, Kevin sees this as an opportunity for his family to live a

better life. Knowing that Da-song is fond of art, Ki-woo introduces Mrs. Park to a great and

experienced art teacher, which is actually his sister, Ki-jung. Ki-jung later is hired by Park’s

family. She also fakes her identity that her name is Jessica and she graduated from foreign

university. This happens to Kim too. Jessica sets the former driver up that he sometimes uses

the car for having sex. Then Jessica recommends his father, which also has faked his identity to

be the new driver for Park’s family. After Ki-woo, Ki-jung, and Kim succeed to enter the Park’s

family, they plan to kick the housekeeper, Moon-gwang from the house and replace her with

Kim’s wife. By provoking Mrs. Park that Moon-gwang has a contagious disease that can put

her children in danger; Mrs. Kim sorrowfully has to fire Moon-gwang and replace her with

Kim’s recommendation; his wife, which of course has faked her identity. Finally, all the Kim’s

family has a better life by faking their identity to Park’s family.

From the story above, it shows that Park’s family is adequate to hire such a lot of people

to work for them. Mr. Park being able to pay people to work for them represent that he is a

wealthy people and he comes from upper class society. In contrary, Kim’s family that has to

fake their identity and deceive Park’s family to be able to have a job indicates that they have no




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relation and social status in upper class society. They have to pretend that each of them,

especially Ki-woo and Ki-Jung comes from respected, well-educated, and rich family to be able

to work in Park’s family. This represent that Kim’s family is a low social class family.

The representation of social class can also be identified from small details in the movie

that a lot of people may miss when watching it. However, this is also quite significant to

determine one’s social class. In minute 1:27:15, Mr. Park notices that the house smells like Mr.

Kim’s body scent. He says to his wife that Mr. Kim smells like old radish. He also tells his wife

that Mr. Kim smells like in a subway, and his wife says that it was ages since she took subway.

The figure above shows reaction to how Mr. Kim’s body smells

Approaching the end of the movie, Mrs. Kim also realizes in the car that Mr. Kim does

smell bad. Mr. Kim bad body scent is noticed by Mrs. Park is because his house just had a flood

and they had to evacuate. He did not get to take shower and put on decent clothes. In this scene,

Mrs. Park even closes her nose while looking at Mr. Kim because of the smell. From the

explanation above, the writer conclude that those who are in upper class usually smell good

because they can afford perfume. However, it is quite impossible for a low class society family

to afford tertiary material like perfume because for food itself, it is hard to get. This clearly

shows social class gap between the two families. It is often perceived that rich people smell

good while poor people smell bad.

The last but not least is the representation of an object in the movie. In the very beginning

of the movie, Ki-woo is given a quite strange and big stone by his friend who also the same

person offering him the job as an English tutor in Park’s family. His friend, Min, gives Ki-Woo

because they are good friends. This Stones is like a present for Ki-woo to accept Min’s offer to

become a tutor for Da-hye. Min offers Ki-woo the job because he loves Da-hye and does not




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trust other people to handle the job except Ki-woo. After receiving the stone, Ki-woo and the

family do not know the value of it. His mother even mumbles and says that food would have

been better than the stone. It turns out that the stone has a high value. If sold, it will give them

quite much money. In an interview with Vanity Fair in discussing the meaning of the scenes in

the film, Bong said the stone given by Ki-woo's friend was an important symbol in the film. The

stone comes from the old collector and actually has a high price but was not realized by the

poor. The younger generation also did not pay attention to objects and traditions like this. Ki-

woo himself has a different view in seeing the stone prize. Bong gives an overview Ki-woo sees

this as an inspiration to his life because it is given by his friend who has an economic status and

a different world from him (Fair, 2019).

Figure above shows the scholar’s stone

It is Kim’s family’s uneducated background and lack of relations that cause them not to

realize how valuable the stone is. This stone is an example that rich people know scholar’s

stones are valuable things, and not all people, especially poor and uneducated family like Kim’s

family will acknowledge.

In addition, Bong also provides a description of real life where humans often forget the

position and reality of his life when faced with convenience and a favorable moment. Bong said

the Parasite movie is about the Invasion and Infiltration of the Kim family who infiltrated the

rich family, in this case Bong thinks that invasion is a subtle, mysterious, and tactic process that

is very compatible with the meaning of the parasite. The scene that shows this meaning is when

the Kim family uses the Park family's house with all the facilities and raw materials available,

but Bong quickly replies the reality of their lives when they have to return to the semi-basement




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house in a flood situation. It is an ironic reality but it happens in the real world but it is ra rely

portrayed emotionally, where the news usually only elevates this as a flood disaster news and

does not expose the personal side of the affected people and do not have choices in difficult

situations due to economic conditions (Chichizola, 2020).

In terms of life, Bong also shows the different ways in the daily necessities of life

between rich and poor people, such as the jappaguri noodle cooking scene for poor noodles is

cheap food and beef is food that is only bought and cooked when there is a big celebration and

big money enough to buy it. But Bong shows that rich people are accustomed to mixing all

types of food without judging the price of raw food ingredients by combining instant noodles

and expensive beef (Han, 2019).

In the ending, Bong gives a scene where Ki-woo still has hope for a prosperous life for

his family. Bong gives a vivid description that Ki-woo still has a hope that someday he could

have enough money and get to buy the house to help his father trapped in the bunker. From all

the scenes and meanings that Bong describes, he aims to provide visuals and emotions about

the differences in life, perspectives, and culture of economic status (Jung, 2020).

As stated from the explanation before, Hall clarify that meaning can be found through

language and signs. He also adds that when signs are discovered, meaning will be easy to

determine. This is the same with the writer findings that explain about the sign such as, Mr.

Kim’s body scent, Ki-woo’s shcolar’s stone, Mr. Park’s and Mr. Kim’s house. After finding the

signs, the writer can determine the meaning and conclude that Mr. Kim’s bad body scent

represent that he is from lower class. It is the same with his small and dirty house. Mr. Kim’s

family’s not knowing about the value of the stones is also the sign that they are uneducated who

come from suburban society. On the contrary, Mr. Park’s enormous house and his luxury

possession and elegant lifestyle represent that he comes from upper class society. Without Stuart

Hall’s theory and deeper analysis, this movie is just a story about a family deceiving and

invading another family. However, using Hall’s theory gives something more meaningful about

how two families from very different social class live their lives.




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5. CONCLUSION

Parasite is not only a movie to entertain its audience, but this movie also has a deeper meaning

that can be analyzed. How the characters act, dress, and react to things lead to the representation

of each family’s social class. Two different families from different social class can be the trigger

to a conflict. Park’s luxury and good quality of life represent that they are considered an upper

class in a society. On the other side, Kim’s family poor quality of life, uneducated and bad

manner shown in some scenes indicate that they are considered as a lower class family. These

statements are also reinforced by Hall theory that says meaning can be determined by ideology

and experience of people reflected by culture or reality in a society. Bong Joon Ho also wants

to give a description that there are still people who live poorly and still seen as trash in society.

This can be seen from Park’s family who often feel disgusted by the presence o f Mr. Kim

because of how his body smells. In a nutshell, Park’s family and their lifestyle represent an

upper class social status, while Kim’s family’s poor life represent lower class social status.

6. ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

1. Lambok Hermanto Sihombing, a lecturer of Communication Department at Universitas President.

2. Agustinus Alexander Sinaga, an assistant research at Universitas President.

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